1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to machines utilized to resize the diameters of used shell casings and, more particularly, to a bench mountable and hand operable press utilized for resizing the brass body and rim on shot gun and small arms ammunition prior to the reloading thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that conventional ammunition, such as shot gun shells, are physically capable of being reloaded and fired many times. It is necessary, however, after a shell has been fired either to replace the battery cup unit or replace the primer cap. Additionally, the firing of a shell generally deforms and otherwise distorts the walls and brass portions of the shell. Thus, in order to effectively reload a used shell for re-use, it is usually necessary to restore the wall of the shell to a smooth cylindrical contour and to flatten and straighten the brass base portion, which includes a cylindrical body and a substantially flat rim, both of which may have been deformed due to various stress encountered during the previous firing thereof.
Pertinent prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. of which I am aware include 621,941 to Parmenter, and 3,113,483 to Puth. The Parmenter device, for example, services only small arms ammunition and features a single resizing die A mounted on a swinging head 8 which allows the die to be rotated from under the ram for insertion and removal of the shell. The swinging head is not automatically indexed nor does it rotate the full 360.degree.. Further, in the Parmenter device, the shell is manually removed from the resizing die by pulling on the rim thereof. As is common with such machines, if this rim shears off, as is apt to happen, the shell must be driven out by inserting a punch on the inside of the shell. Such an operation is, of course, both frustrating and time consuming and may lead to the destruction rather than the resizing of the shell.
The above-cited Puth reference teaches a device and method for resizing used shell casings which, however, is limited to shot gun shells. Further, the Puth device does not feature dual-automatic indexing dies nor automatic ejection of the resized shells as in the present invention which will become more clear hereinafter. Another disadvantage of the Puth device is that it fails in any manner whatsoever to provide any means for resizing or otherwise controlling the outer diameter of the shell rim. This is important inasmuch as the outer diameter of the brass rim of a shell has a tendency to increase if not restrained or controlled which can cause the brass body to separate from the paper or plastic portion of the shell. Further, if uncontrolled, the rim diameter of the shell may expand to a point where the shell will not fit in the magazine of its associated shot gun.
I have also encountered several problems with commercially available shell casing resizers. One such problem is the lack of power or leverage available to both resize and extract the shell casings. In existing resizers, for example, the ram or die must travel the full length of the shell such that the shell may be inserted under the die and removed after resizing. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide more leverage into the lever-press mechanism by reducing the required travel of the ram. Further, on existing resizers, the shell is generally removed from the die on the upward stroke of the press handle. This reduces the amount of power available for the extraction of the shell, particularly if the machine is not mounted on a heavy foundation. Thus, another object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizer in which both the resizing and extraction operations are performed in the downward stroke of the press handle-lever.
A still further problem encountered with prior art resizing machines involved frequent difficulties encountered in extracting the shell from the resizing die. One particular prior art resizer includes an extracting and depriming plunger having a particularly tapered tip at the point of contact with the inside of the shell. Unfortunately, as force is increased on such a plunger, it tends to wedge into the primer hole thereby expanding the base of the shell which tends to increase the resistance to the extraction operation. Without such a taper, however, it would be rather difficult to initially get the plunger past the crimp end of the shell when inserting for resizing. Thus, a still further object of the present invention is to overcome such problems by the inclusion of an automatic ejection feature, as will become more clear hereinafter.
Another area of concern with respect to existing machines and methods involves the present tendency of operators of such machines to inadvertently, perhaps by means of inattention, fail to completely resize the shell by, for example, failing to complete the lever stroke. Thus, a still further object of the present invention is to obviate such operator error by requiring a full resizing stroke prior to the time the next operation may be initiated.
A further undesirable feature generally characteristic of presently commercially available resizers is their inherent lack of speed. Accordingly, an additional object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizer which features increased speed of the resizing, as well as the extraction, operations.
Thus, a further generalized object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizing machine which is more versatile, reliable, and produces a better quality shell than available from the prior art models.
A still additional object of the present invention is to provide a machine for resizing used shell casings which features a pair of cooperating resizing dies which incorporate automatic shell ejection and automatic indexing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizer which effectively reshapes the outer diameter of the brass body portion of shell casings, the rim portions of the shell casings, and further includes means for reshaping the rim portions of the shell casings.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizing machine which may be easily adapted to resize either shot gun shells or small arm ammunition shells.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizer in which both the resizing and ejection operations occur in response to the same force transmitted during a single downward stroke of the cooperating press lever-handle.
An additional object of this invention is to provide a shell casing resizing machine which, by virtue of automatic indexing and automatic ejecting features, requires less force than previous machines to accomplish better results in far less time.
A still further object to the present invention is to provide a shell casing resizer which incorporates a depriming plunger for automatically depriming the associated shell during its resizing cycle.